Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Unleashed

This is the industry’s most comprehensive and useful guide to SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2. It presents start-to-finish coverage of SQL Server’s core database server and management capabilities, plus complete introductions to Integration, Reporting, and Analysis Services, application development, and much more.

Four expert SQL Server administrators, developers, and consultants have packed this book with real-world information, tips, guidelines, and samples drawn from their own extensive experience creating and managing complex database solutions. Writing for intermediate-to-advanced-level SQL Server professionals, they focus on the product’s most complex and powerful capabilities, and its newest tools and features. For example, you’ll find invaluable information on administering SQL Server more efficiently, analyzing and optimizing queries, implementing data warehouses, ensuring high availability, and tuning performance.

The accompanying CD-ROM contains an extraordinary library of practical tools and information including sample databases and all code examples. Whether you’re responsible for SQL Server 2008 analysis, design, implementation, support, administration, or troubleshooting, no other book offers you this much value.

Understand the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 environment, R2’s newest features, and each edition’s capabilities
Manage SQL Server 2008 more effectively with SQL Server Management Studio, the SQLCMD command-line query tool, and Powershell
Efficiently manage security, users, backup/restore, replication, Database Mail, and database objects—from tables and indexes to stored procedures and triggers
Increase availability with clustering, database mirroring, and other features
Use new Policy-Based Management to centrally configure and operate SQL Server throughout the organization
Use SQL Server Profiler to capture queries and identify bottlenecks
Improve performance by optimizing queries, design more effective databases, and manage workloads with the new Resource Governor
Develop applications using SQL Server 2008’s enhancements to T-SQL and SQLCLR, .NET integration, LINQ to SQL, XML, and XQuery
Make the most of Analysis Services, Integration Services, and Reporting Services—especially Microsoft’s new R2 reporting improvements
Improve data security using Column-level and Transparent Data Encryption

CD-ROM includes:

15 additional chapters
Code samples, scripts, and databases utilized within the book
Free version of SQL Shot (performance & tuning software)

Customer Reviews:

Useful technical reference for SQL DBA

By charles pyle - November 28, 2010

Microsoft keeps adding new functionality to SQL server so the latest version, SQL 2008 R2, has become vastly complex. So much so that Microsoft has divided up their DBA certifications into three specializations: core DBA and developer and BI. Correspondingly, technical books on SQL 2008 tend to be divided up along the same lines. Thus I would have thought it would be impossible to cover the whole in a single book. But this book attempts to do just that. And it does a pretty good job, in my opinion. Of course it cannot go into great depth on any one subject, but it goes into enough depth to be useful to a practicing DBA in any of the three categories.

They manage it by making the book huge. So huge that, apparently, it can't all be printed in a single book. So when you buy the book, you get a book that is around 1700 pages (1550 pages of text and about 100 pages of index and 50 of front material) and in the back of the book is a CD that contains another 800 or so pages in... read more

Very poor QA process...

By 1PBFOOT "1PBFOOT" - January 29, 2011

To be honest, I have never seen such a poor QA process for a book. The chapter I was most interested in has numerous errors in it. Let me explain...

This book comes with a CD containing another ~800 pages of supplemental chapters. Chapter 52, in PDF format on the CD, contains info on SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS). However, the CD's Chapter 52 code samples aren't for PDF Chapter 52--they're under the Chapter 46 folder. The "Chapter46_AllCodeExamples.sql" file has the correct code... For the first exercise in the chapter, if you paste the right code into the export query window & click "Parse" (like it says to do in the book), you'll get an error that says "Incorrect syntax near '`'." Unless you're already a SQL guru that knows the authors accidentally used the Unicode "open single quote" character as opposed to the standard ASCII apostrophe, you'll be lost. Once you fix that problem and click "Parse" again, you'll get the following 3 errors... read more

A case where the Kindle book beats print?

By Lance M. Andrewes "lancenz" - May 14, 2011

I purchased the Kindle edition and am pleased to report that it does contain all 56 chapters, so no need to download "part 2" of the book as a pdf. The graphics are in colour and in all cases the text in screen-dumps is readable (if fuzzy). The index uses a notation like "CD:2331" when referring to pages that are on the pdf included with the print edition. Thankfully these links take you to the correct location in the Kindle book.

The content is wide ranging but don't expect miracles in what is now a huge platform. For example Master Data Services gets only a short overview. Overall the book is very good value.